Beschreibung:

SPECULUM HUMANAE SALVATIONIS, French: Cy commence le mirouer de la redemption de lumain lignage translate de latin en francoys selon lintencion de la sainte escripture . Tr. and ed. Julien Macho (Augustinian friar of Lyons, fl. 2nd half 15th cent.) [Lyons: probably Martinus Huss], 26th August 1478. Royal 2° (410 x 280mm). Collation: π 4 (1 blank, 2 . preface, incipit: Tous ceulx qui enseigneront les hommes a faire iustice seront resplendissa n s , 2 . -4 . index and tables); a-d 8 (a1 blank, a2 . text, incipit: [A] u non de dieu et de la sainte trinite commence le mirouer de la redemption humaine , [b1 . ] incipit: Du iour de la nativite de nostre dame ) e 8 (-5, 8+1 Une aultre foys le diable le print en une haulte mo n taigne moult ) f-z A-B 8 (B7 . colophon as given by Claudin III 164-5, B8 blank). 162 leaves only (of 204; lacking blanks π1 and a1 and all of quires x-z and A-B). Gothic type 2[Haebler 3]:119, closely modelled on Richel's Basel fount 3:120G. Double column, 46 lines. 236 FINE WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS printed from 232 blocks (about 128 x 86 mm each) in the columns of text. (Lacking 40 text-leaves, containing 20 cuts according to Claudin's count, two short tears in blank margins of π 2 , two short tears in π4 affecting a few letters, a very small tear in u8, a few finy wormholes at beginning and end, some light stains, but in crisp and unwashed condition.) Quarter vellum fastened over wood boards with small brass nails, one vellum pastedown, brass catches, (joints split, binding of uncertain date). Provenance : contemporary rubrication, penwork initials and paragraph-marks in red, yellow capital-strokes; initial A on a2 . contains owner's coat-of-arms (unidentified). FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH of a highly popular medieval Latin typological work. The Mirror of Human Salvation harmonizes stories from the Gospels, later Christian legends and some pagan legends with prefigurations in the Old Testament. As a teaching aid it was meant to be illustrated and was translated into a number of vernacular languages. It survives in hundreds of manuscripts, four semi-blockbook editions and well over a dozen incunable editions. It was this kind of corrupt interpretation of the Scriptures that was so abhorred by the Reformation, and in the early sixteenth century the text died a sudden death. Its origin can be fairly precisely dated to not after 1324, but cannot be localized with certainty (attributions range from German Dominican to Italian Franciscan). The French translator, Julien Macho, was also responsible for the revisions of the first published French paraphrases of portions of the Bible, which were printed by Huss's Lyonese rival Guillaume Le Roy for Barthélemy Buyer. This edition is generally and perhaps justifably described as THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED BOOK PRINTED IN FRANCE. The French edition of Guy de Chauliac's Chirurgia , printed by Philippi and Reinhart for Buyer and containing a few technical woodcuts of basic medical instruments, is earlier by a few months (Claudin III, 11-18; GW 11698 [BNF copy only]); Martinus Huss's illustrated edition of Macho's L'Exposition et la Vraie Declaration de la Bible selon Nicolaus de Lyra (Claudin III, 174-6; Pellechet 2355-6) may have to be dated to 1477, the rubrication date of the Rylands Library copy (see BMC VIII, p. 249). The Lyons Mirouer woodcuts were printed from the same blocks as Bernhard Richel's 1476 edition of the German text of the Speculum, Spiegel menschlicher Behaltnis (Schreiber 5274). According to Pfister ( Das deutsche Speculum , Basel 1937), they were cut in Basel by three artists and evidently share iconography with the drawings in the so-called Selestat Codex (Munich, BS CIm 146). The cuts contained in this copy are reproduced as nos. 18-102 and 104-250 in Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke XXI; four impressions of the 232 blocks have been repeated once: 111 Cain slaying Abel, 175 Christ appearing to Disciples, 85 Return of Prodigal Son, 236 Rising of the D